This Is Not a Love Story, This is The End
by VanishRain
Summary: A story of loss, redemption and how a broken heart truly learns to soar.
1. Blank Slate of Mistakes

Chapter 1: Blank Slate of Mistakes

She knew this was completely illogical but the smile raging through her body was much more than she could contain. For years she had dreaded this date. The day that had sent her life into a downward spiral of self-doubt and heartbreak; but exactly ten months and four days ago that same day had a radical new meaning. The shadow of doubt that once covered her ever waking second finally broke, revealing a sunset of perfection and unshakable love.

Even as pragmatic and determined that this woman had become, determined that love did not exist, well, for her anyway; the facts were as plain as the air she breathed. She was not his perfect match, to any significant degree anyway. But as the smile on his face breathed new life into her hallow shell of a being, she knew one thing was true.

This was love and he was it.

"I know I'm late but…" A man with gray hair and a briefcase came barreling through the doors, "you'd never believe the day I've had."

She just smiled as the man rushed around the apartment. Without missing a beat the man shuffled the contents of his briefcase across the coffee table with a disgruntled sigh. The woman could see the weight of the day way heavy on his mind but the smile twinkling in his tired eyes set her heart a flutter. As much as she tried to deny it, there was something real in the way he could turn even the darkest of nights into a brightest of sunrises.

"Baby, today was just..." Was all the man could muster before sweeping his loving wife into his arms. "All this tedious paperwork was all I could do to not kill all those stupid, stupid reporters. Couldn't they see I had somewhere more important to be then some stupid meet and greet? But, man, if one more of them shoved another recorder in my face, I was going to..." The man trailed off as the scent of the woman he adored filled his every movement. Even at his worst, she still brought out the best in him.

"We don't want that." The blushing bride couldn't contain her excitement of the evening's activities that she was sure was going to end only one way, "I don't think I can live without you anymore; especially after last time. When we... well, you know." The woman spoke flustered and in pure disbelief of what had actually unfolded before her eyes. A woman who knew without a deniable doubt that love, life and a family was not in the cards for her was standing in the kitchen of the apartment she shared with her husband, about to bust at the seams with news that was going to sure to rock him to the core.

"After all it took to get here," The man smiled, trying to catch the frown that had fallen from her angelic lips, "they couldn't make me leave you even if they had a gun to my head. You're mine and always will be."

"Always." The woman smiled, trying to fathom how she could be here again with him and finally, honestly, more than she even could to admit to herself, in love.

_Five years earlier…_

Watching the streets flood below, Brennan couldn't help but let the silent tears flow. As they tracked down her checks onto the puddle on her floor, she knew it was the end. The end of something that had defied all odds and sent a once rational, pragmatic woman into the downward spiral of her demise. The end of her own personal love story. They had all told her to just give it a shot, forcing her to contemplate emotions she had pushed so deep down inside she wasn't even sure if they were real anymore. But as she watched she her life unfold before her there was one undeniable truth. They were wrong, all wrong. And the price she would have to pay would be her life as she knew it.

'_I love you; Bones… I do… please… please just stay…'_ The words reverberated over and over in her mind, unable to just let her heart die in peace. _'Bones… please…'_

But words were not enough salvage the perfection that they had created. The light flickers of what they once had spoke of a truth neither could deny. They had lost their spark, their fatal connection that forever brought them back together. The once in a lifetime shot they had to let things unfold in pure perfection. And as that flicker faded into the darkness of the night, Brennan knew the choice was already made.

Six months were all it took for her heart to shatter into a thousand unrecognizable pieces. It had taken her six years to give him her heart but a second for him to shatter it. Couldn't he see it was killing her to just be his best friend? She had given him her heart but as he paraded woman after woman in front of her wavering devotion she knew it was the end.

The end of all that she had tried to savor. He was the heart and she was the brain, didn't he know she would need time? Yet, at the first chance to run he let her flee as quickly as her feet could take her. Running off to the farthest lands, just so she didn't have to face all that she had meant to him. He had given her his heart on a silver platter and ever since that day, she knew the truth: she had his heart all along.

He had told her he loved her once before but as she lay broken on the bedroom floor they had once shared; she knew the truth. The undeniable, earth shattering truth.

She was damaged goods.

An apartment once full with the pitter patter of small feet now lay bare and vacant. All the memories of what she once believed was hers for the taking now lay neatly in a tower of boxes.

A new city, that is what she needed to escape the overbearing heartbreak he alone had caused. A new city, name and love. That is what it would take for her heart to finally learn to soar again. That was all she needed to shake the death that followed her day and night. The death of the only thing she had ever begged for, the only thing she had ever truly wanted. His love.

"Goodbye." She whispered against the void she now resided in, "Goodbye my love, my life, my all."


	2. A Sense of Purpose

Chapter 2: A Sense of Purpose

"This is very good steak, baby." The man nodded in acknowledgment at the scrumptious dinner his wife had provided. "I know you don't do this often but, damn, woman your cooking skills are incredible. If I didn't know any better I would have thought you had something up your sleeve." Carefully eying his wife once more the man briefly smiled before shoveling more food into his mouth. "Naw," The man finally conceded, "I can read you like a book. If you were up to something I would have known."

"That is true." The woman smiled a knowing smile, "I am sure if I had something planned you would be aware of it before I even spoke a word. Some days I wonder how you exactly got in my head, but then I realize the absurdity of it and feel safe in the notion you could not physically reside in my cranial space."

"Yes, that may be true technically," The man thrust his fork at his wife for emphasis, "But you know what they said at the wedding. You can deny it all you want and use your scientific vocabulary to cover it up but you know the truth, that night surrounded by God and all of our friends and family we became one. We were not just two people anymore. We became one entity bound to each other for eternity."

"But... but.. I don't believe in the pinnacle of a higher being so your assumptions are invalid." The woman said confidently but the sly smile jumping across her partner's lips spoke more then words could ever express. She had lost.

"Yes, but I do." The man smiled, "And you love me enough to do that for me. In a small ceremony at the courthouse or a huge bashed with everyone we ever knew, you gave me the great honor of being your husband. In that small space we shared that night there was love and where there is love there is God. You don't need to believe for me to be correct. You just need to love me, eternally."

And in that moment, the woman knew if there was a God or not was irrelevant. All that mattered was the love the three of them shared. A love that would last for eternity and beyond. It had to, for in him she had found a purpose above all other.

Love.

_Four years, nine months earlier..._

"Hello, Dr. Brennan." A man ten years her junior greeted the once world known anthropologist. "I assume you are here for the orientation?"

With a slight nod the slightly grey woman acknowledged the young man. It had taken her years to become the greatest in her field but only a mere month to fall into the depths of oblivion. Years prior anyone who knew anything about anthropology wanted to work with the great and daunting Temperance Brennan but that was useless now. Never in a million years did she believe that leaving her post at the Jeffersonian would not only be something that she had chosen to do but something she had to do, not for herself but to save the countless interns that waited at her beck and call. They deserved much better then the poor, helpless woman before them could provide. They deserved an instructor, not just a washed up forensic anthropologist with no real sense of family or identity.

"Doctor Brennan..." The high-pitched eagerness of the young man pulled Brennan back to reality, "As I was saying, if you would please take your name badge and sit with the other former professors I am sure someone will find you when we are ready for your interview. Please know we are very busy and will do our best to accommodate all promising faculty but as of last night there is only one vacancy. It seems Dr. Richards has returned to his post with the university. The position for his research partner is still open though."

As the young man slid the laminated piece of paper forward the pit in Brennan's stomach began to grow. Waking up this morning Brennan was sure she would not have gotten looked over for the teaching position but as she sat there the daunting realization that they had not even considered her for the position became abundantly clear. She had more experience then everyone in the room and had even trained most of them. But the fact that she had failed at the only thing she had ever truly loved was like a hard slap in the face. Her first and only true love had been the pursuit of science and truth.

That was until he walked into her life and changed all that she had known. She found herself caring more about what her partner thought of her then the purity of science. Bit by bit he was stealing her heart and stealing her soul. Paying the price for a deed she had not done was not something she deserved. She may have killed and cried in the name of love but that love was nameless now. She was no longer a woman with a burning flame for a man but only science remained now. She had become a cold, broken, nameless being. A being without regret and shame. Only science knew her true heart now.

So she ran, as far and fast as her frail feet would take her. Sure, she was at her end of her rope but after all she had given up in the name of love she knew she deserved more. Working at a bargain basement university for the man that had destroyed her whole world piece by piece was something she could not accept. Even though she had nowhere else to turn, she knew her purpose would not be found among men filled with deceit and greed. Her purpose was found within, within the hearts and minds of the people she had once turned her back on.


	3. A Hallowed Hallelujah

Chapter 3: A Hallowed Hallelujah

"Amen." The woman smiled as she pulled her head up from the Bible nestled between her legs.

As the light broke from between the clouds she couldn't help but smile with glee at the beautiful morning before her. Little did she know years ago that there would be such a glorious end to the disaster known as her life or even that she would be here, in this place actually praying to a God she had denied for so long. Even when her reasoning was staring, hallowed, and empty before her, she still ran from the only faith she had ever had. But it was days like this that made the years of running worth the shattered days and tearful nights.

"It is mornings like this that make me happy to be alive." Her husband smiled he strolled from the bedroom in nothing but the purest white towel, "My beautiful wife basking in a glow almost as radiating as her. How can a man such as myself be so lucky?"

"Dear, luck has nothing to do with our partnership. If luck had anything to do with it, you would have lost me before you even had the chance." The woman smiled as she played along, "If you want to thank anyone you should thank hormones and long work hours that prevented you from having any form of a normal social life. The abnormalities of your career choice is the main reason we are here." The woman smiled defiantly, sure she had won the argument.

"Fate." The man smiled as his wife's sunk, "You are describing the fate that brought us together."

"Fate is an excuse for the non-scientific. I believe in facts and rational. After all these years you should know at least that much." The woman protested her point.

"One of these days I will make you believe in fate. If it is the last thing on this earth I do, you will believe." The man chuckled lightly, sure his wife knew she had already lost the bet.

"Nope, not going to happen."

"Woman of little faith, I made you go to church didn't I? And now you are usually the one dragging me kicking and screaming every morning. If I was capable of convincing the completely rational to do something based solely on the faith of the unseen, I can do anything. Now hurry that pretty little ass little lady or we will be late for church."

With a sly smile and meek disposition the woman approached her husband with a proposition she knew he could never refuse. Sure, he always the punctual on the Sabbath but he was still a man and as a man certain desires could not be denied.

"Why don't we just do a little kicking and screaming here instead?" She giggled as she tugged the white scrap of fabric donning his waist, knowing in that instant where ever she would go he would always follow.

_Four years, six months earlier..._

"Oh God..." Brennan gasped as her eyes flickered open in the morning light, "How the hell do you do that?"

"I am just that good baby." A man fifteen years her junior smiled, "Now that I have done my part, you're going to do yours right?"

"Matthew, I told you I do not condone those activities." Brennan gasped as she tried to catch her breath, "You should want to learn and improve your rational thinking, not just pass a class and obtain a grade."

"I know but..." The young man smiled as he enveloped his suitor in his arms, "Woman, you wear me out. After nights like this I barely have enough time to sleep; what makes you think I am going to have time to study some stupid facts I am just going to forget? The art of seduction is one that is always in demand but can you even tell me the last time you had to use quantum physics?"

He was right, as much time and attention she was demanding did have to take a toll on his time for study and reflection. There was something those chocolate orbs of his, this inner draw that brought her night after night to grovel for just an ounce of release. At least in the arms of a faithless lover she could keep the flicker of love lost alive.

"Your right." Brennan confirmed, slipping from beneath the covers and strolling into the bathroom, "It was silly of me to engage in such a primal release when you have other affairs that should be occupying your time."

"So you're going to..." Mathew growled as his belongings began to form a pile in his lap, "What the hell are you doing Tempie?"

"It seems this sexual relationship has run its course." Her voice shook as she spoke, not sure if to run or cry at the sorrow that was finally edging it's way back in. "When this relationship started I had not concluded that it would affect your schoolwork. It was bound to end this way," She tried to speak with confidence but her voice came out as a mere whisper, "it was irrational for me to think that a male of your age could possess the skills needed to keep up with both your schoolwork and a sexual relationship."

"Fine." Mathew snarled as he collected his few possessions and made his way toward the door, "But you'll regret this Tempie. It may not be now or even in a week, but one day you will look back and wonder if it was all these men or that you were really the reason they all left you." And with a slam of the door, he left her with the knowledge of why all her lovers had fallen away to others.

Collapsing against the warmth of the sheets that had once held her part-time lover and only friend, the tears began to flow from deep within. Letting her eyes roll close with a pitiful whimper, Temperance finally let go of weight she had been carrying for so long. Memories of a happier time began to shuffle through but it had been a pain she had dealt with for years. A time when there was love and peace, not the war that was raging deep within her soul. The only time in her life when she was truly happy.

"Dear God..." Brennan finally whispered against the void, wondering if the faith her former partner had spoke so fondly of could truly save her now.


End file.
